Cutting Through the Confusion - This PDF file describes the various financial professionals that investors deal with. It describes what they do, their legal obligations to clients, how they are paid, and helps the investor choose the correct type of investment professionals for their needs. This short PDF is an excellent place for new investors to begin. It can also help students to understand what kind of investment professional they want to be after graduation.
Alliance for Investor Education Investor's Clearinghouse - This is a good site for leaning about investments. It is sponsored by the NASD, NYSE, CFA Institute, Bond Market Association, and many others.
Bond Basics from PIMCO - This is a good site for learning about bonds from PIMCO.
Investopedia - This is a very good site that covers just about everything. It has educational articles, a dictionary of investment terms, and tutorials. Highly recommended.
InvestorWords - This is an online glossary of investing terminology.
NASD Individual Investor Service - This is one of the best sites for learning about investing. I strongly recommend that you read these documents in the first part of FIN 3600. All of the documents are also available in Spanish.
Yahoo! Education Center - This site has good tutorials for the beginning investor and also has several investing dictionaries.
NYSE's Educational Publications - This is a nice, simple introduction to stock investing.
MSN MoneyCentral's "Get started as an investor " - This is a perfect site to read in preparation for Stock-Trak.
MSN MoneyCentral's Risk Tolerance Quiz - How much risk can you take and still sleep at night? I took the quiz, and it seemed to accurately summarize my own feelings about my risk tolerance. Try it for yourself.
Merrill Lynch Risk Tolerance Quiz - This quiz is similar to others available, but its only six questions.
T-bills, Notes, & Bonds Online - This site, by the U.S. Treasury, provides good information on Treasury securities.
FRBNY Fedpoint 41: Treasury Auctions - Learn about the process used by the U.S. government to raise funds in their regular auctions of government securities.
Money Market Instruments from the Richmond Fed - This is an online copy of the, now out of print, book "Instruments of the Money Market." It is an excellent source for information on money market securities.
Ameritrade on Money Market Securities - This site has a good summary of different money market instruments.
Government National Mortgage (GNMA) - Learn about the mortgage-backed securities known as Ginnie Maes.
Social Security Reform Center - This site, by the Heritage Foundation, shows why you cannot count on Social Security. That, of course, means you should take care of your own retirement needs. Be sure to check out their Social Security Calculator which compares your benefits to those you would have if you were able to invest the same amount of money (in a very conservative portfolio).
Brokerage Fraud - Learn something about the things a broker can do to harm your net worth, and what you can do to protect yourself. You should make sure that you read some of the articles in the Reference Room section.
Understanding Securities Analyst Recommendations - This excellent paper from NASD Research explains everything you need to know about interpreting analyst stock recommendations. It covers everything from misleading wording (what's the difference between "underperform" and "sell") to conflicts of interest to the need to do your own research.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) - Learn all about REITs from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). They also have a search page which you can use to find REITs that meet your criteria.
Fiduciary Responsibility - What is a fiduciary and why should you care? Learn all about it here.
S&P Bond Ratings - This site explains a lot about bond ratings by Standard & Poor's.
NASD Registration and Examination Requirements - This site lists all of the NASD Exams (Series 6, 7, 63, etc) that you may need to take in order to sell financial products. There is a PDF file explaining the purpose of the exam and the material it covers.
Lipper Leaders - Find the leading mutual funds in a number of different categories.
Mutual Funds Education Alliance - This site, sponsored by major no-load mutual fund companies, provides a lot of educational material. Be sure to check out the Getting Started section to learn all about mutual funds.
Morningstar - This is a great site for choosing mutual funds. It provides lots of information that is difficult to find elsewhere (such as mutual fund risk measures).
NASD Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer - This calculator allows you to compare the effect of the expense ratios oon your returns for up to three mutual funds and/or ETFs. It also provides other comparisons between the selected funds.
ETF Basics Video - This is an online video from Barclay's (iShares) that covers the basics of exchange-traded funds. This is definitely worth a look, and it will take less than 20 minutes to watch.
ETFConnect - This site has a lot of information about ETFs. Including a good educational area. Sponsored by Nuveen.
ETF Heatmap - This Nasdaq site shows which ETFs are hot today, and which aren't.
iShares - This site is for the iShares ETFs (sponsored by Barclays) and has lots of information on iShares. It also has a screening tool to help you find just the right ETF for you.
Morningstar's ETF pages - Morningstar does a great job with ETF coverage, just as they do with mutual funds.
The SEC on ETFs - The Securities and Exchange Commission has a page with information about ETFs.
InvestingOnline's Margin Education - This is a very nice tutorial on the basics of margin accounts. I wish it went into more detail, but it covers the basics well. It even has a short quiz at the end,
NASD Regulation: Margin Information
Day Trading - SEC statement on day trading, and the NASAA's Analysis of Day Trading Accounts at a Day Trading Firm .
American Stock Exchange Option Strategy Guide
CBOT Futures Tutorial - Learn about agricultural and Dow futures from the Chicago Board of Trade.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission - This is the site of the government's commodity trading regulator, the CFTC. There is a lot of good information about regulation, the existing marketplaces, etc. It also has a very good page that explains The Economic Purpose of Futures Markets, and another good one about What You Should Know Before You Trade.
FuturesKnowledge.Coms's Education Center - Learn about trading futures and options on futures. This site also has a good list of contract specifications so that you can understand what it is, and how much, that you are actually trading.
Futuresource.com - This site has futures quotes, charts, and news.
FXStreet.com - This is a very good site for currency traders. Lots of news, charts, etc. Also has a live currency trading chatroom.
OANDA.com - This is my favorite site for currency quotes (I especially like the historical rates), but you can also set up an account to actually trade currencies. If you are trading currency futures, you should check out their FXNews page.
National Futures Association - The NFA is the self-regulatory body for the futures industry. They have some educational materials about futures and options on futures that you may want to read. In particular, you should read "Security Futures: An Introduction to Their Uses and Risks."
Numa's Options Strategy Guide - This is a great tool for those of you who want to use options in your Stock-Trak portfolio. You tell the Guide about your expectations for the underlying security and it tells you what options strategy to use.
Options Education Center - The Options Industry Council (OIC) teaches you all about options and how to trade them. I especially recommend their free (just register) online courses.
Yahoo! Options Education - Yet another options education center.
Yahoo! Options Trade Finder - Simply enter a ticker and your expectations about the stock price and the Options Trade Finder will give you the top trades.
MSN Investor - This is a fabulous site, and is my favorite investing Web site. It also includes CNBC.com.
Yahoo! Finance - This is a close second to MSN Investor, but its not as glitzy and its harder to get data into useable form (e.g., Excel).
EdgarScan - This free site, by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, allows you to get all of the SEC documents, and get the financial statements in Excel format. It is actually easier to use than FreeEdgar, and I highly recommend it.
SECViewer - This is a new site created by the SEC for viewing XBRL-formated financial statements. The site allows for very easy viewing of financial statements and great export to Excel.
Gold News Weekly - This site has current spot and futures prices for precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, and palladium) as well as news and commentary on the metals markets. I'm not endorsing any opinions you find here. Generally, I think precious metals are a lousy investment, though they can be great at times.
PRARS - Public Register's Annual Report Service allows you to get free annual reports easily.
FINRA Bond Market Data (TRACE) - This site reports the prices and yields of all OTC corporate bond trades. It also has a bond screener that can be used to find bonds, and a glossary of the terms used by the service.
The Bond Market Association - This site has a wealth of information about bonds, including the same TRACE pricing data as the NASD site above. For bond quotes, I prefer the NASD site.
Municipal Bond Quotes - This site offers delayed quotes for municipal bonds by state (find Colorado bonds here). Also has some educational materials, but not much.
See IPO Road Shows on the Web - This site has videos of company IPO road shows. It is a very nice presentation in a Macromedia Flash player. It shows a small video and a bullet-point presentation.
SEC Form ADV Search - This is the place to learn some background information on financial advisors. It is especially useful for students who will be interviewing with financial planning firms.
Stock screeners help you to find stocks that meet any criteria that you specify (e.g., earnings growth > 15%, P/E < 20, etc). Note that they are merely a starting point. You should always further research companies before buying them. Screeners only help to locate potential investment candidates.
Reuters PowerScreen - This is a very good java-based screener. It has 80 pre-defined variables and you can define your own. You do have to create an account, but I've never been bothered by them in any way (i.e., no Spam).
Yahoo Stock Screener - This link gets you to the most useful of Quicken.com's screening tools. Novices may prefer the predefined screens.
ChartFilter - This site has good tutorials on the types of charts and indicators used by technical analysts.
ClearStation - This site has good charts, reports from users, and reports based on technical indicators though you may have to register (free) for some charts.
Presidential Election Cycle Stories - Here is a Google search for stories on the presidential election cycle theory.
Prophet - This site has earned kudos from Barron's as the best chart site.
Technical Analysis from A to Z - This book is available online from Equis International, creators of the MetaStock charting program.
StockCharts - This is my current favorite charting site. It has great charts and indicators, allows chart annotation, and has a really good point and figure charting tool.
Jonathan Clements' Getting Going Columns - This is an archive of Mr. Clements' columns from the Money & Investing section of the Wall Street Journal. These columns are almost uniformly excellent, and reading them will be a great benefit to your portfolio. You must subscribe to WSJ.com to access these columns, but the subscription is included automatically in your Wall Street Journal subscription.
Barron's Economic Calendar - This is a great calendar of economic events, such as releases of economic indicators. It not only gives you the information for each date, but also tells what the market will focus on, the consensus estimates, and definitions. I think you need to be a subscriber to WSJ.com to access this link.
The Crash of 1929 - This site has headlines from the New York Times after the crash. It also has various headlines from the period before the crash.
A Brief History of the London Stock Exchange - This site provides the dates of certain highlights in the history of the LSE.
History of the CBOT - This is a timeline of the key events in the history of the Chicago Board of Trade (the first futures exchange in the US).
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange
The Bureau of Labor Statistics - Statistics on everything from inflation to productivity to workplace injuries. They also have very in-depth discussions of how the numbers are calculated.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis - As part of the Department of Commerce, the BEA produces the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) which includes estimates of GDP and related measures.
U.S. Census Bureau Economic Programs - Data on home ownership, durable goods, international trade, and much more.
Federal Reserve Banks - This site is the gateway to the 12 districts banks of the Federal Reserve and all of the data and research that they compile.
Dismal Scientist - This site offers current economic indicators and analysis. One of the best econ sites on the Web.
FreeLunch.Com - More than 1,680,000 economic data series are available for download. The site and data are free, but you must register.
The Conference Board - Get the leading, coincident, and lagging indicators as well as their famous consumer confidence index.